Literature / Scary Stories For Young Foxes

And then seven little foxes slipped out of their den with a mission to scare some white into their tails.

"All scary stories have two sides...Like the bright and dark of the moon. If you’re brave enough to listen and wise enough to stay to the end, the stories can shine a light on the good in the world. They can guide your muzzles. They can help you survive."

— The Old Storyteller

One night, seven fox kits demand to hear a story that’s actually scary. So begins Scary Stories for Young Foxes, a 2019 children’s novel written by Christian McKay Heidicker and illustrated by Junyi Wu. They’re directed to the old storyteller, who agrees to share such scary stories. These tales follow a pair of fox kits, Mia and Uly, as they survive and escape the various monsters they encounter. Of course, one by one, the kits depart when a story proves to be too much. Will any of them make it to the end?

A sequel, Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City, was published in 2021. It follows O-370, a fox raised on a strange farm who grew up with decidedly different tellings of Mia and Uly's adventures. But after learning the truth of what eventually happens to all foxes, O-370 escapes into the city. He runs with a young vixen named Cozy and her skulk, leading to quite a disturbing adventure.

Tropes Present in the Stories

Scary Stories for Young Foxes

• Abusive Parents: Mr. Scratch returns one night and demands that Uly’s mother kill him, or else he’ll kill one of his remaining sisters. He grabs one of them by the throat to show he's not bluffing.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Miss Vix regains control long enough to warn Mia to run away before she's overtaken by the "yellow sickness", suggesting there's still some part of her watching as her body is driven to attack her students. Ditto for Roa.
  • During her time as Mrs. Potter’s unwilling guest, Mia is convinced the author trapped the souls of previous captives in her illustrations. The rabbit caught before her is resigned to this fate, figuring he’ll at least see his wife again.
• Archnemesis Dad: Mr. Scratch is the Big Bad and Uly’s father, who wants nothing more than his “hideous” offspring to be eliminated. He’s also the Evil Overlooker featured on the cover.
• An Arm and a Leg: One of the gators that forms the Golgathursh catches, tears, and devours Uly's disabled leg. Losing it is the only way Uly escapes with his life.
• Artistic License – Biology: If we assume “yellow sickness” is in fact rabies, then it’s this trope. The disease depicted causes symptoms near-instantly and Roa is able to survive for months while having it. In reality, rabies can take a while to show any symptoms and is fatal shortly after those symptoms manifest.
  • This trope is continued in the sequel. In real life, rabies is spread by infected saliva coming into contact with healthy blood, as through a bite. In the second book, it gets spread to countless dogs through kibble that had a small amount of vomit from a fox that had eaten an infected rabbit mixed in while it was being processed. To be blunt, rabies would absolutely not be spread this way. ^note  Though it is possible that the rabbit managed to bite a few dogs before being killed, and those dogs could have bitten others to begin a chain reaction. However the delay in symptom onset is at least much more realistic, taking several weeks. Additionally, as of now there is no successful cure for rabies in reality (vaccinations can stop the disease if given quickly enough after infection, but once symptoms appear survival rates drop to almost zero) while one is developed in-story, though this at least could be argued as a fictional cure for a real disease.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Played with. Uly’s eldest sister was very abusive, and was the one who directed her sisters to heap said abuse onto him. But her death by poisonous snake bite, while arguably somewhat karmic because of her mistreatment, is still treated as a tragedy by both the guilt-stricken Uly and their grieving mother.
  • Played completely straight with Mr. Scratch/Wynn. Getting shredded by bats, infected with rabies, and drowned in an ice cold river perfectly suits an absolute monster like him.
• Bittersweet Ending: Mia never sees her mother again, Uly's surviving family is left to an unknown fate, and Mia's brother Roa is left to ultimately die from the "yellow sickness". But Mr. Scratch has been slain, the surviving kits Mia and Uly found are presumably saved, and new generations of kits continue on. Hopefully after they've learned the lessons Mia imparted upon them as the old storyteller.
• Breather Episode: The fourth story simply details how Uly meets and helps Mia escape from Mrs. Potter. A kit lampshades it in-universe, chiding the storyteller over a story that was heartwarming instead of scary.
• Crapsaccharine World: The Lilac Kingdom is a safe place, with plenty of food and coated in the scent of lilacs. That is, if you completely follow the whims of Mr. Scratch and are perfectly okay with murdering children he doesn't want.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Uly’s abusive big sister was encouraged by none other than Mr. Scratch himself. Something he proudly declares to her grieving mother not long after her death.
• Dead Guy Junior: The youngest of the kits reveals to the storyteller that her name is Mia. In fact, there’s always a Mia every generation, in honor of the heroic kit her ancestor believed she lost. The old storyteller, the original Mia, is quite touched and saddened to hear this.
• Death of a Child: Young foxes can and do die under a variety of horrific circumstances, from fatal bites to outright murder by abusive parents. This also applies to the one of the pups Mia and Uly find in the final story, who succumbs to rabies after getting bitten.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Golgathursh is a creature of many eyes and mouths lurking in the center of a dark swamp, inspiring terrible folklore about what it would do to an unfortunate traveler. At least, according to the stories Uly’s sisters would use to torment him. The revelation that it’s a cluster of alligators does little to ease the tension when they nearly drown and eat Uly.
• Evil Overlooker: In addition to Mr. Scratch on the cover, the title illustration for "Six Sisters" show Uly fleeing from his sisters as they watch over him ominously.
• Evil Smells Bad: Inverted, Mr. Scratch is associated with the pleasant smell of lilac. Which means Uly panics any time he faintly catches a whiff of such a scent.
• Fate Worse than Death: The "yellow sickness", aka rabies, is rightfully seen as such. If you survive, as in the cases of Miss Vix and Roa, most of you is lost to a feral beast that drives you to attack everyone.
• Fighting from the Inside: Miss Vix tries to overcome her "yellow sickness", but only regains control long enough to warn Mia to run. Roa, likewise, regains himself long enough to redirect his attack from Mia to Mr. Scratch.
• Handicapped Badass: Uly was born with a disabled foreleg, which draws the ire of his less-than-stellar father. Despite his fears he'll never survive, he escapes Mr. Scratch's attempts on his life and helps Mia as much as she helps him. Losing his foreleg to the Golgathrush doesn't keep him from doing what he can to defeat Mr. Scratch or find food for the little ones he and Mia find in the winter.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Beatrix Potter is portrayed as a skin-stealing witch from the foxes’ perspective. She captures animals and breaks them through inactivity and heavy oatmeal diets, so they may serve as inspiration for her stories and future additions to her taxidermy practice.
• Hot for Teacher: Mia and her siblings assume Roa has a crush on Miss Vix and tease him about the prospect. (In truth, Roa finds her inspiring and wants to be like her.) Mia recalls this when she encounters the rabid Roa later on, trying to assure him he could marry and have kits with Miss Vix if he likes.
• Implacable Man: This trait makes Mr. Scratch especially dangerous. Uly's mother previously tried to kill Mr. Scratch in a rock slide, only for the monstrous dog to return one night not much worse for wear. The delay between getting struck and coming back was so he could manipulate his eldest daughter into turning the rest of the family against Uly. His pursuit of Uly and Mia isn't halted after getting mauled by a horde of bats and bitten by Mia's rabid brother. In the end, he's finally bested when Uly knocks him into the freezing, rushing river.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While much of what happens in this book isn’t outside the realm of possibility, there’s bits and pieces that hint at something else going on. Mostly notably: the animals suddenly being able to understand Miss Potter after she takes a bit of their ear fur, and the while the “yellow sickness” is heavily implied to be rabies, it actually behaves differently enough from the actual disease that it could be something else altogether.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Either Beatrix Potter moved to America at some point in this book’s canon or somehow a bunch of alligators wound up in England.
• Narrator All Along: The old storyteller turns out to be none other than Mia herself.
• Obliviously Evil: Mrs. Potter clearly doesn’t grasp that an animal wouldn’t care to be trapped in a cage and either turned into taxidermy practice or kept as an unwilling pet. She actually expects Mia to be quite grateful for the "privilege".
• Rasputinian Death: Fittingly, it’s only when he’s knocked into the ice cold river, after getting shredded by bats and infected with rabies, that Mr. Scratch goes down for good.
• Relationship Upgrade: The epilogue reveals that Mia, now known as the old storyteller, mated with Uly some time after the events of her stories.
• Tragic Monster: Miss Vix, the kits’ beloved teacher, is infected with rabies and transforms into a raging beast who, sadly, kills and infects all of them but Mia. Roa, the Sole Survivor of the infected group, later shows up and almost kills his sister.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Uly's surviving sisters are left to an uncertain fate. While they were close to leaving the den for good, their mother was taken away by Mr. Scratch on the threat of killing them. And given his behavior, one can't be too sure he never lived up to said threat.
• Wife Husbandry: Easily one of Mr. Scratch's most disturbing moments is when he outright informs Mia she'll have the honor of becoming a future wife. She understands enough of what he's getting at to tell him to shove it.

Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City

• Awful Truth: By the end of the first chapter, O-370 discovers that the house where they'll be pampered when "they're ready" is a shed lined to the rafters with fox pelts. Needless to say, this inspires him to escape.
• Bittersweet Ending: Oleo is ultimately unable to save his cousin R-211, who succumbs to his injuries after escaping the Farm. But he survives long enough to recount what happened to a group of wild fox kits, who then rush the Farm and help save Oleo and the others. Given they've been raised in cages for most of their lives, Oleo's fellow former captives (especially the pregnant B-838) are scared of their chances in the wild. But with the shared experiences of Oleo, Cozy, and the kits, they may find a way.
• Crack Ship: In-universe, B-838 humorously tries to insist that the raccoon that attacked Uly was in love with him. She later also threatens to ship Mr. Scratch with Ms. Vix if she's criticized for her storytelling abilities. invoked
• Dark Is Not Evil: The veterinarian, understandably, appears as a fearful monster to Oleo and the others. The same can definitely be said for her assistant, a heavily bandaged ape who gets carried away with treating patients under their care. However, the former is developing a rabies vaccine, which the latter eventually gives Oleo, saving him from suffering the same fate as Dusty.
• Darker and Edgier: The City ups the ante from the previous book with delightful things like a fox-skinning farm, a citywide rabies outbreak, and one of the heroes very nearly falling prey to the same disease.
• Death of a Child: Cozy's backstory alone involves the drowning of her siblings, a fate she barely avoided by clawing a hole large enough for her to escape the bag.
• Fantastic Racism: Dusty thinks very poorly of dogs, and repeatedly dismisses the recently escaped Oleo as being one thanks to his sheltered upbringing and tagged ear. Julep parrots the belief, mostly as an excuse to make himself seem better. Of course, Dusty's prejudice later comes back to bite all of them.
• Grimmification: Mia and Uly's adventures are retold as cautionary tales about how dangerous and evil the world outside the Farm is, to help reinforce how much better it is for O-370 to stay in their cages. Fittingly, the tale of Mrs. Potter undergoes Disneyfication, Dramatically Missing the Point about why Mia would want to escape imprisonment.
• Hair-Raising Hare: Patient Zero of the rabies outbreak is a white rabbit that is eaten by Dusty.
• Heel–Face Turn: After bullying Oleo for a good majority of the tale, Julep comes around after Oleo risks literal life and limb to save him from the veterinarian.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Much more pronounced than the previous book. The Farm is an absolutely abysmal place where foxes are kept in cramped cages and eventually skinned. A hunter who quite thoroughly enjoys his job is later sent to deal with Oleo, Cozy, and the others. And the two "mediums" who owned Cozy's mother had no qualms about separating her from her children and then drowning them. That being said, the veterinarian turns out to be a subversion, spending the plot developing a rabies vaccine that saves Oleo.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Cozy destroys the plumbing in the phony mediums' house and floods the place, devastating the livelihoods of the women who abused her mother and drowned her siblings.
• Narrator All Along: The wounded fox turns out to be R-211, Oleo's cousin and best friend who managed to escape. He lives long enough to tell the kits who find him about what happened, spurring them to rescue the others.
• Never My Fault: Julep blames everything that happened after arriving in the city on Oleo "putting him up to" trying to cross a road. Except Oleo never did that, crossing the road on his own first while Julep followed without being asked, trying not to get shown up by a tame fox. He is at least correct that the incident did begin the chain of events that carry the rest of the story, but he never acknowledges his own substantial part in it (crossing the road, getting hit by a car and being taken to a vet, and releasing the rabid bunny while in a drugged-up daze).
• Obliviously Evil: The veterinarian's assistant really wants to help, but has to be reminded that borderline mummifying animals under their care isn't the best course of action.
• Phony Psychic: The two older women who "cared" for Cozy's mother essentially used her as a living soundboard to create "atmosphere" for their scams. Interestingly, they do seem to believe that they have "the sense," just that they need help making their customers believe it too.
• Shout-Out: One of the kits accompanying Cozy is named Sterling, a little guy who loves to recap and punctuate their escapades with dramatic narration.
• The Social Darwinist: Dusty's approach to a kit getting caught or killed is "more food for us". It becomes clear to Oleo that this mentality is her attempt to cope with everything she's lost.
• Survivor's Guilt: Cozy and her siblings were bagged by their mother's cruel owners and drowned in a bathtub. She barely managed to escape, and is absolutely guilt-ridden over her failure to save them. That her mother has gone blind and is convinced her still-living daughter is a ghost only makes it worse.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first book, the kits listening to the story were merely an Audience Surrogate. Here, after the kits hear the last of the dying R-211's stories, they charge the Farm and assist in a successful rescue of every fox trapped there.
• Unfortunate Name: O-370 is renamed "Oleo" after joining up with Cozy and the others (they read his ear tag upside-down). That being said, the plot does have a habit of crapping on him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Dusty, harboring nothing but absolute contempt for dogs, vomits into a dog food supply partly out of spite. This results in said dogs becoming infected with her rabies, making navigation through the city far more difficult.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Dusty and Oleo's search for food leads them to a dog food factory. The vixen, succumbing to rabies, vomits into the food supply as they try to escape. Continuing the analogy of rabies as a form of zombification, the contaminated food causes almost every dog in the neighborhood (and potentially the city) to turn on everyone and everything around them.
• Zombie Infectee: Oleo is bitten and infected with rabies. He spends much of the story fearing the inevitable turn, especially after seeing what happened to Dusty. But he's ultimately saved when the veterinarian's creepy primate assistant injects him with a vaccine.

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